Nemuri
by SeductiveShigure
Summary: Sora is worried. He's feeling something, a feeling that's almost as alien to him as the world of Disboard itself. Is it his libido? Is it his ego? Or is it something even more frightening? And at the heart of it all, why is it that the source seems to be his dearest little sister, Shiro?
1. The Ultimate Game

"I feel weird."

"You're not exactly considered normal by most people's standards, big brother."

"Thank you Shiro, that's just the kind of response that's going to give me that push to be more social with outside people."

"You've got me, why do you need other people?"

Shiro, his genius eleven year old sister, had given him a perfectly normal response, considering how things had worked in their weird little world up until now. But today, things felt different. No, that's not quite right. Things had been feeling odd for a while now, yet he had only really begun to pay attention. And this… feeling, or emotion, whatever it was, made its presence louder whenever she said things like that.

The genius girl in question looked up at him from their game. They were going through their millionth play through of one of their Pers*na games, having outplayed everything else they owned to death.

"You. Have. Me. You don't _need_ anyone else Sora."

There it was again. That weird feeling. What in the name of Imanity was it?

"Hello? Earth-... no wait, Disboard calling to space cadet Sora!"

It seemed to appear most frequently around Shiro. Her voice, her touch as she sat on his lap, her slightly pouting yet totally adorable face. Like a strange yet warm tightness around his chest. It couldn't be…

"Listen, I know I'm lacking the Princess's boobs, but you can't just space out mid-conversation Sora, what the hell…" She pinched his thigh, bringing him out of his trance.

"Owowowow, okay okay, I'm back." Sora rubbed the painful spot where she'd pinched him. It was really sore. Just how mad was she?

"I swear, if all it takes is boobs, it's no wonder it's impossible to attract your attention…"

"That's not true!" Sora defended. "I like a good ass too!"

Her response was a deadpan, slightly terrifying expression from the younger sibling.

"Well you're going to have to wait a few more years before I grow those out. Until then, I'll buy you a chastity belt."

"Oh come on! I wasn't even distracted by that for once. Just… I've been having this weird feeling every time I've thought of you lately…" As soon as he said those last syllables, he slammed his mouth shut. But it was far too late. Shiro never normally had much range of emotion on her face, but now there was a shocked look tinged with a fiery-red blush.

"W-what… kind of… feeling?" Her voice sounded a cat just had its tail stepped on, but it was tinged with curiosity and…happiness?

"That's what I've been trying to figure out!" Her big, round eyes stared at him as he got his words out. Christ, now he was all kinds of flustered. What was going on? He'd had a million perverted chats with his sister before. Hell, he'd even played eroge together with her and this was getting him worked up?!

"...yeah, you're definitely getting a chastity belt."

"Nooo! I don't need a goddamn chastity belt! Gah…" He rubbed his head fervently. "Maybe I just need some water…"

* * *

For as long as he could remember, it had always been the two of them.

「Blank」

The combination of their names created the legendary name that gamers across the world spoke in hushed voices, some even worshipping the siblings as a deity. They were inseparable, together forever.

Their harsh realities had left one ostracised from society, and the other unable to accept that same cruel society. Their need for each other had been born from an evil that lived in that world. The world they despised for its ridiculous, hypocritical rules and heartless penalties.

But they had said their happy farewells to that world a long time ago. And through the trials they had faced thus far in this world, their bond had been tempered to become something even stronger. Something that he was beginning to realise he didn't completely understand, something he hadn't yet experienced before.

How would be deal with this? How do you learn to understand something?

Thankfully, his brain was good at dealing with logical puzzles, and the most logical answer to him seemed to be; to ask someone who might know something about his particular problem. It would be hard to explain, but he needed to ask the question. Hopefully without revealing anything embarrassing, or something that could be used against him in the future. But, he felt as though this issue wouldn't be resolved unless he faced it head-on. That problem being..

Was he in love?

* * *

"No way…"

Stephanie Dola, the Princess of Elkia, couldn't quite believe her ears. Sora, the man who laughed in the face of adversity, who had pretty much saved Elkia and seemed well on his way to world domination had come to her, without his usual sibling entourage and had asked her about the one emotion she was sure he viewed as a mere extension of sexual arousal.

What is love?

His words still ringing in his ears, she pinched herself to make sure this wasn't some sort of strange dream. After confirming her cheek hurt like hell, she had to reluctantly accept this was reality.

But if the topic was love, then the next question was… who?

Kurami? They basically shared all of their memories up to a certain point, it could be argued that she was the second-closest person to Sora beyond his intellectual sibling. But that seemed doubtful to her, they still hadn't known each other long as individuals.

Fiel? No, they barely knew each other. The same went for Jibril, more or less. Close friends maybe, but she couldn't see the romance there.

Izuna? If that was true, she was going to strangle him here and now. That foxy Miko woman maybe, but she somehow doubted it.

Herself?! There might be a slim chance. One of his first wishes in Elkia had been for her to fall in love with him, and maybe he was finally taking responsibility for his actions!

Shaking her head, she forced herself to think rationally. She was a maybe at best, and she had all the time in the world to draw out a conclusion from him.

No. What really worried her was the final girl. The one who had been there since day one, and knew Sora better than he probably did himself. But… There was no way he was in love with his own sister. Was there…?

But the fact that he had come to ask whilst Shiro was asleep, himself visibly freaking out from the weird, distance thing they had going on, wasn't proving the opposite was true either.

"Can I ask what brought this on all of a sudden?"

Sora looked up at her, as he sat on the floor in front of her, clutching his knees. This was apparently the closest she was going to get as a separation coping mechanism from him, so she put up with oddities as usual.

"I feel strange, especially when a certain person is around. And it's distracting, I can't seem to organise my thoughts whenever I'm in the same room as her."

"Are you sure it's not just another perverted fantasy thing?"

"For once it's got nothing to do with boobs, so I'm leaning towards no…"

Biting her lip, Stephanie was really beginning to worry. She would almost rather this was a trivial thing about breasts, the answer to this mess would be so much simpler.

He really was experiencing love. She was about eighty percent sure. As it was Sora, she didn't think she could be a hundred percent sure about anything with him, so this was as close as she was determined to convince herself.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, the idea isn't completely unthinkable. But it's way too early for anything like that."

Her percentage of certainty dropped to about fifty, and her certainty that this culprit girl was indeed Shiro had just shot up to seventy. Going by what he just said, his first real romantic love had a tinge of incest with the extremely limited morality that waiting until she had graduated out of her 'loli-imouto' status was being considered.

And if she was right, which again, she wasn't anywhere near a hundred percent sure she was, then she would have to do something. Partly because she was sure Shiro would accept those feelings quicker than a Werebeast on speed-enhancing magic after the initial shock, partly because she herself had her own feelings for the crazy yet somewhat heroic hermit, and mostly because, well… they were siblings!

Incest is on very shaky grounds in Elkia and whilst she was sure she'd probably accept the idea after a long, long time and lots of therapy, the rest of Elkia might not be so accepting of their King and Queen as sibling lovers.

Which meant one thing. She would have to distract his love attention to something else other than Shiro. Something that the general public would accept. And the only person who came to mind brought her situation scarily close to home.

She would have to seduce him.

"...hello? Steph? We still there?"

"Y-yes! I'm here!" She would have to put her plans of seduction into action after this conversation was over. For now…

"It does sound like you're experiencing something like love. Like, it's hard to think about anything else other than that person, and it's a strange, but not altogether unpleasant feeling, right?"

"Oh god… Is this how you felt when I wished for you to fall in love with me, back when we first met? Jeez, it's horrible!"

"It's about time you faced the consequences for that! It's was so confusing!"

"Wait, so you don't love me anymore?"

His question caught her off-guard. She had a shocked expression, and could only gape at him, making strange noises.

"U-uh… I'm… that is…"

"I can't really tell if that's a yes or a no, y'know?"

"Forget about me! This is about you!" A wild flush creeped over her face, her heart was desperately thumping in her chest. She knew perfectly well how she felt, she needed to figure out his feelings! For her sake too…

"But…" He began talking again, albeit a little nervously. "I wouldn't call it an altogether… horrible feeling. I guess, it's just something I'm not used to…"

Sighing, she could bring some sort of relief knowing that if he didn't quite understand his current emotions, then the wiggle-room to divert those emotions onto her did exist. As slim as it may be. But her biggest problem wasn't even Sora to begin with. He was a hot mess in love and at the moment, not a threat. The biggest threat was going to be Shiro, especially if she clocked on to her brother's feelings. Stephanie got the feeling that the morals of incest weren't really an issue with her, she was just barely toeing the morality of her age as it was. Or so Stephanie hoped.

But looking at it from a perspective of a pure and innocent feeling of love, seducing Sora meant turning the smartest girl in all Elkia into her rival in love, officially.

And the thought of having Shiro as a love rival, quite frankly…

...terrified her!


	2. Tutorial

"WHAT. THE. HELL. IS. THIS!?"

A certain princess was in the middle of playing a video game. 'Irritated' wasn't a strong enough word to describe the girl's current mood. 'Royally pissed' would most likely be a more fitting phrase.

"How does he play these things!? I have to raise a flag for a… tsun… dere?"

Her eyes inches away from the screen, veins pulsing around her head, she was seconds away from flinging the handheld console out into the darkness of the night.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF TET IS A TSUNDERE!?"

Stephanie was in the process of learning about love. Not just any kind of love, but the kind that fit closer to Sora and Shiro's definition. Truthfully, she didn't think there was any difference, but when Sora had started babbling about girls with certain characteristics, she realized that she was way in over her head trying to figure out what kind of girl Sora would actually like.

She didn't even have the handicap of being a cute, busty princess. Her own character type was basically an idiot in the eyes of… most pretty much everyone she lived with in the royal palace, but she was determined to prove everyone wrong.

She didn't want to be a 'Steph' forever…

Luckily, she had Sora's tablet thingy, after god knows how long trying to wrestle it away from the stingy Flügel she co-habited with. At least, the plan to have a database to work with had been a good one, but she'd completely forgotten that she couldn't read the majority of Sora's home country's language of Japanese.

"If all of Sora's countrymen can read a language this difficult, it's no wonder he's so smart…" She sighed as she looked over the undecipherable text. She suddenly remembered that Shiro had memorized the entire Imanity language in less than a few hours and felt even more despondent. She'd been studying the basics for a little while, so whilst playing games wasn't in any way easy, it was doable. But an encyclopaedia full of complicated characters and descriptions was a whole other game in itself.

But then, a thought fluttered its way into her mind. If she could get Sora alone for a few hours to teach her the more complex words, not only would she be able to research what she needed to, she might score some bonus points in her quest for seduction.

The thought sent her wild with nerves, her heart desperately trying to thump its way out of her chest and she could feel her face glowing.

But she had to do it. She couldn't get over this metaphorical wall without somebody knowledgeable in the language, and god forbid asking Shiro was causing her to break out in a cold sweat. Sora was the only option. And it seemed like a good idea in theory. Ignoring the glaring fact that a lot of her supposed theories had crashed around her since the siblings had arrived in Elkia.

But she had to try…

* * *

"You want me to what!?"

Sora looked at the princess, aghast.

"I want you to teach me more Japanese!"

"Why!? It's not like you'll be going anytime soon!"

Steph put on her best cutesy face and prepared to beg as though her life depended on it.

"Learning a new language is important for self-improvement! Even though I may not have an opportunity to use it in your home world, I'm interested to learn about it! It's like how some people research dead or dying languages, except with different circumstances. We might also be able to use it as code if we need to talk in front of dangerous individuals! And also…" She faltered for a split-second. Cursing herself, she dared to look up at the man currently eyeing her with utter confusion.

"And also?"

"I'd be able to… play more games… with you…" She was amazed she'd even been able to say words like that without fainting. Sitting next to Sora, the ever-present Shiro looked just as confused as her big brother.

"She actually has a point. Learning to speak our language might be beneficial in the future. Teaching it to Jibril and Kurumi might be useful too."

"That's true little sis, but I see a few holes in the plot here."

Looking between the two, Steph began to worry. What did he mean?

"Firstly, when we arrived in Elkia, somehow we were able to speak the local lingo instantly. I don't know if it's some weird magic that auto-translating everything we say, or if Imanity is exactly the same as Japanese, ignoring the written language. Secondly, Kurumi should already be able to read and write Japanese if she has my memories, though if teaching is possible, I'd like to teach it to Jibril as well. And thir-…"

"I just want to learn to read and write it! When I play the games, I can understand the voices, but I can't read anything that isn't hiragana or katakana…" Steph said sheepishly. She had graduated top of her class, but the Kanji characters used in Japanese were an actual mystery. It was frustrating.

"Hmmm…" Sora looked thoughtful. "Using it as spoken code is out of the question as apparently Imanity and Japanese are basically the same, orally. But it would be useful when writing stuff down…"

"Okay, we'll do it!" He stood up. "Jibril!"

"What can I do for you Master?"

"Is it possible for you to set-up an arena similar to when we played the word-chain game?"

"You mean with the Materialization ability?"

"That'll be the one. We'll be studying in the arena using those powers." Steph's face dropped. This wasn't exactly what she had in mind. The word-chain game's arena terrified her. She'd died in there once!

A little while later, everyone found themselves sitting in the kaleidoscopic world, complete with school-like desks and chairs similar to what she had seen in some of Sora's games. It was possibly the most distracting place in the universe to be studying a language.

Sora was dressed in a ridiculous black robe and hat, calling it 'the threads that the academics wore in my world'. Shiro had rolled her eyes but she soon found herself wearing the exact same getup.

"Now then ladies and… well, okay just ladies…"

"Wait a sec, why are we here!?" They had been joined by Kurumi and Fiel, looking none too happy about the situation.

"I can read your language dumbass!" Kurumi growled, sounding like an irritated cat.

"Kurumi, I need your help teaching. Trust me, it's going to take three combined brains to make this as painless as possible for everyone involved. Especially if you happen to be a Steph."

"Can we please stop turning my name into a derogatory term!" Completely ignoring Steph, Sora continued the lesson.

"And the first word we begin with on our magical journey to learn Japanese is…" A blackboard appeared out of nowhere behind him, with hiragana characters written on it.

おっぱい

"Oh wait, I might be able to read this one!" Steph looked over the characters, recognising that the word was written in hiragana. She heard a loud noise behind her and turned round to find Kurumi banging her head on her desk slowly. Ignoring her, she turned back to the board and began to read.

"O… pai…" The word danced around her brain. It sounded familiar to her, and for whatever reason she had a strange feeling about it.

"Wait… it couldn't…" She suddenly stood up, glaring at Sora. "HOW IS TEACHING ME HOW TO WRITE BOOBS GOING TO BE IN ANY WAY USEFUL!?"

Sora wore his evil smirk, grinning at the flustered princess.

"Trust me, this is one of the most important words you can learn in my language. Oh, and before I forget, I should probably mention that this will be on the test."

"WE'RE GOING TO BE TESTED ON BOOBS!?" Both Steph and Kurumi's anguish-ridden howls echoed into the colourful abyss.


	3. Am I a Tsundere?

"Well that idea completely failed."

Steph was currently in her room, traumatized and now bestowed with a lot of unwanted, lewd Japanese terminology.

"What does he expect me to do with that? How is my knowing how to write 'exhibitionist' going to help me win his heart?" She blushed a little when she thought about how she could use the _idea_ to do it, but quickly shook her head.

"No! I am a princess! I am going to do this in a wholesome and innocent manner!" She glanced over at her mirror. Her eyes were telling her that it was an impossible dream.

"Grrrr, come on! There's got to be something I haven't tried!" Looking over to the portable gaming console and stack of games she had borrowed from Sora, she began to look despondent.

Reluctantly picking one up, she decided to give it a play in the hopes that an idea might float to her uninspired brain.

"But I played this one before… All I got out of it was that some of Sora's kinsmen enjoy twintailed high school girls who act all high and mighty, in an effort to conceal true… feelings…" Something about that hit painfully close to home. Officially named ' _Tsundere_ ' in the anime and manga communities, Sora had spent a great deal of time trying to explain the details of what that was in the Materialization lessons.

As much as she wanted to deny it, her own personality had a few tsundere-like qualities. She had a hard time being honest with herself, and she may or may not occasionally say the odd thing that would act as a façade to her actual thoughts at the time.

"I feel like I'm becoming sort of self-aware…" She grimaced as she continued to play the game. But the kind of tsundere girl Sora seemed to appreciate was non-stop. She would always be berating the protagonist or hitting him out of jealousy when caught flirting with other girls, amongst other things. Steph didn't feel like that all the time, so at best, was she something of a part-time tsundere?

"I wonder if I was like that all the time… would something change then?" Steph pondered her next assault as she somehow ended up conquering the girl in the video game.

On the morning of the next day, Sora was sat on the throne, playing his own games with his little sister. The routine was familiar to everyone in the castle by now, and the siblings were usually left to their own devices until something major came up.

"Shiro, that's not playing fair!"

"A sixteen-hit combo is totally fair. You fail at blocking things, suck it up."

"I've won two rounds out of three, I think you'll find you're the one who's failing little sister."

"Ahem." Steph made her presence known, jerking the two siblings back into reality.

"Mornin' Steph. Any chance I can get a coffee? Heavy on the cream, and when I say heavy, I don't want to see a single drop of brown under the head." A glint of red shone from Steph's eyes she looked down on the King of Elkia.

" _Of course your majesty. Is there anything else you want this enthusiastic maid of yours to do afterwards?_ " Every word was spoken through gritted teeth, and the siblings felt a horrifying aura from the clearly pissed princess. It looked as though she was going to murder them without cause, Disboard's commandments be damned in their entirety.

"U-um, n-n-no… that will be all thank you." Sora had gone horrifically pale in an instant, and even Shiro was trembling at the terrifying monster before them.

"Hmph!" Steph turned around as fast as she could and stomped back out of the throne room, trying to make herself look as intimidating as possible.

"Did she just… ' _hmph_ ' at me?!" Sora whispered in fright. What in the name of Tet was going on with her today?

Outside the closed doors of the throne room, Steph had a hand on her chest, and was trying to ventilate her nerves in an attempt to calm herself down.

"Was that enough? Did I overdo it?" Her thoughts ran into each other as she tried to figure out what Sora's reaction meant. She didn't want to admit it, but she had felt a sort of sadistic satisfaction from seeing Sora squirm like that. But her logic caught up with her eventually.

"I haven't seen many protagonists look that terrified after talking with a tsundere… Am I doing this right?" She continued to stress test her sanity as she wandered towards the castle's pantry.

Returning to the throne room, one hand holding Sora's ninety percent volume creamed coffee and the other holding a plate of cookies for the siblings, she walked through the doors, plastering the huffiest look she could over her face.

For whatever reason, the siblings had stopped playing their game and were… hiding behind the throne?

"What are you two doing? You're supposed to be rulers of a kingdom, you look ridiculous!"

"We're sorry!" Sora was poking a single, terrified eye from behind the throne. "Please excuse us, we didn't do anything wrong! Wewerejustplayingsomegameswe'renothurtinganybodypleasepleaseforgiveus…"

Shiro was apparently shellshocked, she was mumbling incomprehensible words about forgiveness as well.

The pseudo-ruffled princess placed the treats on a small table in front of the throne. She glared at Sora who visibly jumped out of his skin.

"Tsk…" Steph looked a little embarrassed as she rapidly turned away from his gaze. "I-It's not like I'm doing this because I like you or anything!"

Running the length of the throne room seemed to take an age, but not once did she look back. If she had, she might've laughed at how aghast Sora had looked.

Turning to face his equally confused little sister, Sora trembled as he spoke.

"Does this constitute a national emergency?"

"I think it might be a justifiable response to… that…"

Half a day later, and Steph found herself back in her room. A whole day of being irritated was exhausting. She had no idea how people could keep it up for a long period of time.

Needless to say, it was another plan that backfired. The only thing she could consider noteworthy was that Sora was basically too scared to come within a mile of her. She also thought she might be becoming a sadist.

She could almost hear Sora telling everyone how she had Steph'ed up being what she should normally be classified as.

"If being a tsundere isn't something I can do deliberately, how about trying something a little different." Her eyes wandered back over to the pile of games. Tucked underneath the tsundere game, she could make out the last word on its cover art.

It read '… _Simulator._ '

* * *

Beams were flying around the city. A horrific, evil cackling could be heard emanating from behind the car Shiro was trying to put holes into. Her face was contorted with stress, her teeth gritting to the point she was worried she was going to chip them away.

Her pistol overheated, leaving her no choice but to duck behind cover as her opponent took the advantage, opening fire on her position. Shiro was stuck behind a crumbling wall, leaving her little in the way of defence, praying that the monster on the other end of the gun didn't catch her unawares.

"How did this happen!?" She screamed as she poked her arm around the wall and blindly shot in the direction of the beams. "AHHHHH"

Screaming as she ran to another, sturdier form of cover, Shiro found herself behind the corner of a building leading into a dark alleyway. If the enemy came for her now, she could duck into the alley and set up an ambush.

A sound plan, but it was temporarily dislodged from her mind when a beam whistled past her face, illuminating her escape route as it zoomed down the alley. Her opponent had managed to ricochet a bullet from a metallic plate towards her general direction. Luck had been the only thing that saved her from being wiped out.

She needed a more concise strategy as she ran down the darkened escape route, fleeing from the insanity. The alley seemed linear, which irritated her. She wouldn't be able to lose her enemy like this.

And then she walked into her worst-case scenario. A dead end greeted her after the next turn. There was a wall she could climb, but it would take time.

Looking back, Shiro realized she didn't have that time. The illuminated glow of her opponent's pistol had turned the corner.

"What happened to you!?" Shiro looked at her terrifying adversary. The most horrific grin you could imagine was stretched underneath eyes drowning in madness.

Stephanie Dola was a monster. Evil emanated from every inch of the princess's physique. And not only had she completely lost the plot, but her 'Steph' characteristics had completely vanished, leaving behind a cold, ruthless, insanely intelligent and absolutely terrifying monster in its place.

"What's the matter Shiro. Don't you have a genius plan to take me down?" ' _Black Steph_ ' as they had unanimously decided to dub her, was licking her lips in anticipation. Her pistol lined up with a spot between Shiro's eyes. "I thought you were going to stop me? You were going to prevent me taking your precious big brother away from you?"

The pistol was shaking. Shiro wasn't sure if it was from rage or nerves, but Black Steph seemed to be having trouble maintaining her accuracy one way or another.

"Why are you all getting in my way… He deserves no one else…" Her voice was shaking from a hatred with an unclear source.

"SORA IS MINE!" The pistol flared, narrowly missing the top of Shiro's head. The target in question had ducked just in time to roll just in front of the evil princess, the barrel of Shiro's gun now firmly nuzzled under Steph's jawline.

"He's my brother. He. Belongs. To. Me." Shiro had never sounded this angry before. Once again she was in danger of gnawing off her own teeth, but she didn't care about that right now.

"Is that right?"

With the odds currently against her, Steph shouldn't have been grinning. Realizing she'd lost the initiative, Shiro dodged as Steph fired against something else in the vicinity, once again letting the beam ricochet towards Shiro. The edge of her skirt was caught in the beam, and Shiro could smell burning fibres as she ran away from the maniac, dodging more fire as she headed back up the alley.

"Why is she like this…" Shiro thought as she desperately tried to think of a way out of this hell.

"WHY!?"

* * *

Several hours beforehand, on the second morning of Steph being a different kind of oddball than usual, Sora and Shiro were having an emergency meeting with Jibril, Kurumi and Fiel.

"Steph's being weird."

"Honestly, I think she's the only normal one in this place." Kurumi glared at Sora. "Anybody who hangs out with you for long enough is bound to lose a few screws at some point."

"You have all of my memories for most of my life, how can you even say that?!"

"I'm not going to lie, I've been concerned with my mental wellbeing lately. Ever since I got those memories, I've been having some strange dreams…" Suddenly looking away bashfully, Kurumi turned an embarrassing shade of red.

"But why does Steph being weird necessitate a meeting? Steph being Steph is what a Steph does, right?" Jibril had raised a fair point, but the reason was yet to be explained.

"Lately, the princess has changed. Yesterday, she went full tsundere for no reason and frankly terrified Shiro and me. But honestly, I wouldn't have called a meeting if it was just that." Sora's eyes turned dark.

"Earlier this morning, the princess came into our bedroom-"

"You mean that cupboard under that one flight of stairs somewhere?"

"Bedroom!" He had tried to ignore Kurumi's snarky comment, but it had proved too difficult.

"Anyway, she came in and snuck into our bed. When I woke up, she was on all fours on top of me, panting like a wild animal in heat."

"This being you, how is a princess going into heat on top of you something you don't agree with?" Sora glared at Kurumi in response.

"Is that something she would normally do?"

"As well as that, when I woke up and saw what was going on, I tried to pull the two of them apart. But then she _hissed_ at me! Like a cat getting sprayed with water, she was genuinely angry at me!" Shiro recounted her experience with the crazy cat-princess.

"What could have possibly happened to change her personality so drastically like that? It doesn't make any sense at all…" Jibril pondered aloud. It was the same question in the minds of everyone present. Before anyone could come to a reasonable conclusion, the doors to the room flew open with a resounding bang.

"SORA!"

Screaming in fright, the young male hid behind Kurumi, who herself looked less than impressed at the state of the man's courage.

"What do you want now you crazy-"

"I want you. Right now."

The whole room went eerily silent. Some had their mouths agape in surprise. Sora was in shock and had no response. Steph had a crazy grin that reached her now completely insane eyes.

"N-no!" Shiro had stepped in front of her brother with her arms outstretched. "Steph, you've got to calm down! What's gotten into you!?"

"I've finally decided what it is I need. What it is I want." Steph pointed a single finger at the terrified male still hiding away. "Ever since the first day I met him, his existence has meant everything to me. And I'm taking him for myself, right now!"

"I am never wishing for a girl to fall in love with me ever again. If batshit crazy princesses are karma's answer to my lustful indulgences, then this is officially all kinds of bullshit!" Sora barely whispered as he clutched onto Kurumi's waist as though she was his only hope.

"And what will you do when we don't let you?" Shiro replied in a cold, dark voice. Steph's crazy grin seemed to stretch even further.

"Then I suppose I'll have to get rid of you then, won't I?"

The ultimatum had been set. Stephanie Dola was out for blood.

"I'm sure as we're all aware, the commandments forbid any kind of murder." Jibril fluttered in-between the gazes of the two deadlocked girls. "We can surely settle this in a different way."

For everyone in the room, that meant only one thing.

It was time to play a game.

* * *

"Just so we're on the same page…" Kurumi was sipping herbal tea in a waiting room with Shiro and Jibril. "We're going to have a game in the Werebeasts game simulator thingie. And all we have to do is eliminate Steph?"

"Pretty much." Shiro didn't sound all too happy. Any other day, this would be a piece of cake. But today, the stakes were a lot higher.

"If we win, Sora as the hostage somewhere in the game environment is set free and allowed to do as he pleases. If we lose, Sora becomes subservient to the princess and must do whatever she pleases?" Kurumi didn't sound in any way impressed. "Isn't that basically slavery?"

"More or less." Jibril replied. "But instead of ordering Sora to do menial tasks, he's essentially going to become her love slave, and be ordered to fall in love with her."

"Kind of reminds me of the time they first met, except a whole lot more terrifying." Shiro had her face in her hands and was mumbling through her fingers.

"So what kind of game are we playing? Something like that love gun mess when we fought the Werebeasts before?"

"Exactly!" A familiar Werebeast had come through the doors of the waiting room and jumped towards Shiro.

"Izuna!" Shiro hugged the fluffy girl as she rocketed towards Shiro's chair.

"What do you mean exactly?" Kurumi mumbled. The game hadn't seemed all that fun to her. After nuzzling into Shiro for a moment, Izuna turned back to face them.

"Well… It's not exactly the same. Instead of falling in love with whoever shot you, you'll simply be evaporated out of the game. You can't be brought back, so it's a one-hit kill kind of game."

That was bad. All Steph needed was to either reach Sora's hiding place first, or eliminate the three opposing girls. And she could do it without worrying about any of them coming back.

"I would like to play with you guys again, but I've already played this kind of game before, and it'll be cheating if I play with you guys." Izuna looked down. "I'm not allowed to give you any hints either, but it is a fun game!" She looked around. "But why isn't Steph playing with you?"

"This time…" Shiro had stood up out of her chair, looking determined. "Steph is our enemy."

An hour later, Shiro, Kurumi and Jibril found themselves in the same Tokyo-lookalike map they had played in last time. Partly so the Werebeasts could keep the rest of their games secret, which made sense to Shiro. It also meant that both sides were more or less familiar with the map itself, so more time could be spent strategizing.

However, just like last time when they had been briefed about the love game, the group had been told of numerous traps that littered the environment, as well as 'pads' that could be used to energize a player, sort of like a power-up. Abilities like super-speed, invisibility and explosive weapons were all up for grabs, which meant formulating a plan was quickly becoming a nightmare for Shiro.

"First, we need to find out where Sora is. We have no map and the area is huge." Jibril started fluttering her wings. "I'll search the skies and see if anything sticks out to me!"

"Don't stay still for too long! She can shoot you out of the sky if she sees you!" Shiro yelled as the Flügel rapidly ascended to the skies.

But Jibril had a point. The area they had to cover was colossal. If Sora was hidden in a room somewhere, searching from the skies would do them no good, but if Jibril could at least spot Steph, they could end the game that way.

"AHHHHHHH!" Almost as soon as she had taken flight, Jibril had fallen straight back to the ground again. Two round, burning holes were singeing her feathers.

"She's taken out my ability to fly…" Jibril gritted through what was apparently realistic pain. "She's actually gone insane."

"It's like she's been overtaken by a dark personality or something…" Kurumi muttered. "Like a 'Black Steph' persona…

Shiro looked at the downed Flügel with worry. Their long-range reconnaissance had been eliminated. The only thing she had learned was that a game over required a fatal shot, which was why Jibril hadn't yet returned to the real world.

But the gears in her mind were turning faster than ever. She had to stop Black Steph, hopefully revert her back to normal, and save her big brother.

Before she lost the most precious thing in her life.


	4. Black Steph

More shots echoed across the battlefield. Shiro was running and jumping from cover to cover, her mind not quite processing that she was essentially losing a battle of strategy to Steph of all people. Part of her mind wondered to what her brother was going to say after this was all over, but she then realized that the whole point of this game was to rescue the aforementioned sibling held hostage so she might be forgiven.

Making her way inside a skyscraper, Shiro noticed something glowing on the floor. An ethereal green glow illuminated the area, and she was vaguely reminded of old-style games that had superpower pads. Remembering that Izuna had mentioned something along the same lines, she tentatively placed a toe onto the pulsing pad, the sound of ambient humming rapidly replaced by a sudden whoosh as her body began to glow the same color as the pad. Within seconds, starting from the point-of-contact, Shiro's body began to turn invisible.

"I've _ALWAYS_ wanted to try something like this!" She whispered ecstatically as she watched her hands disappear in front of her face. It was a little unnerving, not being able to see her limbs, but as she could still feel them, her non-existant mouth grinned.

She stopped grinning when she noticed a timer in the top right of her vision. It had started counting down from five minutes.

"Is that it!?" Huffing as she made her way through the building, Shiro tried to update her formulating plan taking the power pads into account. If she was remembering correctly, Izuna had mentioned something about other pads, including super speed, super strength and plenty more.

"That basically means she could have any number of unknown powers at any point." Chewing her thumbnail, she realized that the same applied to her. But if, for example, Shiro had invisibility and Steph had super speed, Shiro would have the element of surprise but what if Steph could dodge a bullet with her power?

Hearing gunshots from outside, Shiro rushed to a window, just in time to see Jibril dodging shots on the ground whilst returning fire. Her questions were being answered as she watched Jibril fire several shots in succession to a rapidly dodging Steph, bullets passing through what looked like an afterimage instead of hitting the real Steph.

"Jibril, no!"

Shiro could only watch as Steph fired relentlessly, causing Jibril to dodge at weird angles that knocked off her sense of balance. It was then only a matter of time before a shot found it's mark, catching Jibril square in the chest. Her body just evaporated, signaling her part in the game was now over. Shiro could only watch in horror as Black Steph turned around and locked eyes with her, several stories above ground level and opened fire.

Flinging herself from the window, Shiro dodged just in time before glass exploded everywhere, shards raining down on her. How in the world had she figured out where she was!?

Running from the room she was in, she ran blindly, trying to put as much distance between her and the insane Steph as she could. She had a strange nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something was off. Something about what was happening in this game was reminding her of the last time they'd played in this crazy simulation.

Catching her breath on the roof of the building, pieces were starting to slide together in her mind. There was no way Steph could figure out her position that easily. And her ability to strategize and fight were not normal. The Steph they knew couldn't do any of that.

Which meant that the Steph she was fighting was either an imposter, or she was possessed.

Shiro doubted it was an imposter. As warped as the feelings had become, Steph's love of Sora was genuine. It felt like somebody had taken those feelings and added super-concentrated yandere to the mix.

The implications this meant were huge, but at the tip of the iceberg, somebody was trying to sabotage Elkia from within. This was a politically-induced hostage situation and Steph was the hostage. The question was who was the puppet master behind the strings?

 **BANG!**

No, the real question was how was she going to escape the situation she currently found herself in? Black Steph had caught up to her and now they were both trapped on the roof. Her invisibility had run out a while back and she honestly didn't think it would help if her theory about Steph being possessed was true. The person controlling her may be able to see through powers like that, especially if magic was involved.

"I finally found you, Shiro." Steph licked her lips, follwed by a wild grin.

* * *

"This is a complete and utter nightmare!"

Kurumi was running underneath the skyscraper that was currently putting on a fireworks show on its roof, bullets whizzing all over the place as Steph and Shiro battled it out.

"I need to get up there. But by the time I do, the battle will likely be over." She gritted her teeth, sifting through her mind to come up with an idea that might help. She had all of Sora's memories up a point, and she still came up empty.

If she had an ability to fly, or had wings like Jibril, she could zoom up and join in the fight, but she was only a simple Imanity.

As if Tet himself had heard her internal anguish, she rounded a corner and noticed one of the strange power pods glowing an odd blue color. Praying that this pad had the ability she was looking for, she jumped onto it, and waited for the effect to take hold. She'd been playing around with the pads earlier, but hadn't found one that enabled flight. Izuna had mentioned that a flying perk was available, but all of the other pads she had tried hadn't given it to her. A blue color was the only one left she hadn't tried, and with her prayers answered, she felt her body immediately get lighter. Looking up at the illuminated skyscraper, she willed her body to fly as fast as the physics of this world allowed.

Like a shot from a gun, her slim body whizzed to the skies, leaving a sonic boom in her wake. Within seconds, she had made it to her destination, hovering just above the roof. She could see Shiro dodging and returning fire as well as she could, but Kurumi could easily see she was getting exhausted. Raising her gun, she fired off several shots in Steph's general direction. Without even looking, Steph dodged the bullets, and returned a few of her own, forcing Kurumi to rapidly change direction in mid-air.

"That's bullshit!" Kurumi screamed after dodging the volley. "Who are you!?"

Even when facing two-on-one, Steph somehow still had the upper hand. Dodging, rolling, firing, she could anticipate a bullet's trajectory long before a trigger had even been pulled, and apparently she didn't even have to be facing the shooter. It was as if she had an extra pair of eyes of something.

Several more bullets whizzed past, forcing Kurumi to maintain a wild sequence of dodges, rolls and narrow escapes, all while trying to aim her own bullets somewhere in Steph's general location. She still couldn't quite wrap her head around how Steph was managing to fend off two opponents at once, and especially with one of them being Shiro.

They had to change their tactics. Keeping a distance was only sustaining the stalemate. The only answer Kurumi could come up with was a full-on assault.

Her ability to fly was also running out, according to the timer in the top right of her vision. She'd have to land on the roof at some point.

"Might as well go in all guns blazing." Gritting her teeth hard, she mustered her mental strength, before she shot towards the roof. Seemingly anticipating the move, Steph's gun was emptying itself in her general direction. By some miracle, all of the shots missed.

Taking a cue from Sora from the previous game, Kurumi had not attempted to dodge. Steph's bullets were aimed in anticipation of her actually dodging, and Kurumi was glad the trick had worked.

"Sora, you really are insane sometimes." She smiled as she kept on her flight path. Firing for all she was worth, her own bullets were missing as Steph managed to dodge and weave her way around them, for all the world looking like a ballerina in a storm.

But Kurumi's aim was different. The bullets were only a distraction. Steph's newfound ability to predict a bullets trajectory was almost too perfect, but it left milliseconds before she could move again. Even if she was somehow endowed with superpowers, her reaction time had a maximum limit. There was simply no way you could dodge bullets from two opponents and anything else that happened to be flying in your direction at the same time.

Her impact hurt a lot more than she had anticipated. Flying straight into Steph at what must of been supersonic speeds, she had expected some pain, but it felt like flying into a wall. Her opponent's gasp of pain seemed to indicate this was a sentiment felt by both sides. Trying her best to ignore the gut-pummeling agony in her head, Kurumi pinned Steph down under her legs and held her gun between Steph's eyes.

She didn't waste time with stupid one-liners. Kurumi felt like she could never pull something like that off anyway. That was more Sora and Shiro's thing. They could look awesome and act like it too.

But the stakes were too high this time. With her finger on the trigger, Kurumi squeezed with all her might.

A single shot rang out across the rooftop.

* * *

 **"KURUMI!"**

Izuna, Fiel and Jibril were watching the game on a monitor next to the pods where the remaining combatants were currently comatose in. The scenario hadn't required a massive stadium this time, so the three girls were sitting in a medium-sized room on a luxurious couch. Empty bowls of food and drink were scattered around them, stress-eaten along with their fingernails. All of them were near hysterics, and that was before Kurumi had found herself eliminated from the game.

Jibril, after having been recently eliminated herself, was nearly in tears from her failure. The other girls were slightly anxious as to whether she would spontaneously combust if the worst came to pass.

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

Kurumi woke up from her pod, seething as she ripped her restraints off her body. Eyeing the monitor with pure rage, it looked as though she was ready to put her foot through the machine.

"I WAS SO CLOSE, I WAS NANOSECONDS BEFORE THIS RIDICULOUS CRAP COULD'VE ENDED! ARRGGHHHH!" She settled for pummeling a nearby wall. Cradling her now fairly bruised hand, she marched over to the other girls and violently sat down on the couch.

" **That** is **NOT** Stephanie Dola. I don't care if Tet himself comes and tells me otherwise, somebody is controlling her!" Pointing to the comatose version of Steph wired up to the game via the pods, she felt an urge to rip her body out of the machine and slap her around. She knew full well that if she actually went through with it, it could actually do some serious mental damage, so she settled with simply glaring a hole into the sleeping girl's figure.

"Honestly, we were thinking the same thing." Jibril muttered, casting her eyes over to Steph's laying figure. "But I tried searching for a source of magic being cast in this room and I didn't find a thing. Either, this is Steph having awoken to some crazy dormant ability that's driven her to insanity, or if somebody is controlling her, they're a very powerful magical being."

"Wait... look at the game!" Izuna cried out, pointing to the monitor.

Inside the virtual realm, things were not looking good for Shiro. She had reached her peak of physical ability and was now breathing raggedly, exhausted from the extended fight with Steph. It reassured her only a little that Steph also appeared to be tired. Even if she had been possessed by something, it appeared this gave no boost to her own physical limits. Steph's super speed had run out a long time ago too, so dodging bullets had become much harder for her. Thanks to that, Steph was missing certain items of clothing, including her shirt and skirt. Shiro wasn't in much of a better position. She had lost her sweater, skirt and kneesocks.

"This is playing out exactly like before." Shiro breathed out, acutely aware she was playing in not much else than her shirt and panties. At least this time they weren't on show for the whole of Elkia to see.

Steph had regained some of her breath, standing up wobbly as she aimed her gun. Shiro wasn't sure she could avoid another barrage of bullets. Lucky for her, Steph decided to talk instead of shoot.

"You can't win Shiro. This is where it ends."

"I... don't know... who or what is inside that stupid head of yours... but even Steph knows..." Shiro panted out, glaring at her opponent.

 _"That Blank never loses."_

Steph just glared at her. Shiro could physically see her trigger finger moving to shoot. It was now or never. She'd have to find some sort of energy to dodge this, and pull out her last trump card. Crouching down in preparation to jump to the side, Shiro suddenly froze.

Steph's expression changed. It looked like she was squirming in pain.

"Wait! WAIT!" Her gun no longer pointed at Shiro, Steph had both hands grabbing her head. "Get out of my mind!"

Stumbling around as she fought whatever was inside her head, Steph began to scream. Shiro had her gun pointed at the currently incapacitated girl, but couldn't shoot. If she shot now, there was no telling what might happen to Steph midway to what looked like to regaining control.

"What should I do?" Shiro bit her lip, her gun trembling. "Sora... What do I do!?"


End file.
